Wednesday, October 15, 2014

UK unemployment falls below 2m; The ground shakes for the AAA-club; Vatican and the mystery behind the gay welcome

1 UK unemployment falls below 2m (BBC) The UK unemployment total has fallen below two million for the first time in almost six years, official figures show. The number of jobless people fell by 154,000 to 1.97 million in the three months to the end of August, the Office for National Statistics said. The drop, which is bigger than analysts expected, took the unemployment rate to 6%, its lowest level since late 2008.

But wage growth remained stubbornly below the current 1.2% inflation rate. In total, there are now 30.76 million people in work. Chancellor George Osborne said the fall in unemployment was "evidence that our long-term economic plan is working".

The proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 in work is now 73%, close to its all-time high of 73.2%. Over the year to the end of August, the number of unemployed people fell by 538,000, the largest annual fall since records began. But the number of people choosing not to seek work increased.

"Real pay continues to drop, carrying on the trend that began six years ago. Weak pay is bad news for household budgets, but also for the levels of income tax receipts and the UK's fiscal position," said Martin Beck, senior economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club.


2 The ground shakes for the AAA-club (Angela Monaghan in The Guardian) Finland has become the latest country to be stripped of its coveted AAA credit rating, after Standard & Poor’s downgraded it one notch to AA+. The Finnish prime minister, Alexander Stubb, described it as a “wake-up call”.

Countries including the UK and US were among those to be dealt the humiliating blow of losing the top rating after the financial crisis. Germany and Luxembourg are the only two eurozone members still worthy of AAA status, according to Standard & Poor’s.

While the three main ratings agencies – Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch – are divided on the credit worthiness of numerous countries, they are unanimous that the following are AAA rated: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland.

The world’s largest economy suffered credit rating humiliation in 2011 when Standard & Poor’s stripped it of its AAA rating. The US had been AAA rated by S&P since 1941, but the political stalemate that took the economy to the brink of default brought an end to that. Moody’s and Fitch have kept the faith however, and maintain their AAA ratings.


3 Vatican and the mystery of gay welcome (San Francisco Chronicle) It's one of the great mysteries of the meeting on family life taking place behind closed doors at the Vatican this week: Just where did the authors of a draft report come up with such ground-breaking language that gays had gifts to offer the church and that even homosexual partnerships had merit?

Officially speaking, the draft report was a synthesis of the interventions from more than 200 bishops. But conservative cardinals have said their views were not reflected in the draft, they blasted the report as "unacceptable" and said it was in sore need of an overhaul.

The most contentious passage is contained in three paragraphs of the 58-paragraph report under the heading "Welcoming homosexuals." It starts off by saying gays "have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community." There was no reference to Catholic doctrine that gay sex is "intrinsically disordered," sinful or that homosexual orientation was "objectively disordered."

There is no real way to know which bishop or bishops had proposed such ground-breaking language. The controversy over the document has crystalized the deepening divisions in the church over Francis' revolutionary agenda to make it a more welcoming place.

What remains to be seen is if Francis can ensure that the final report continues to reflect that view after all the amendments are in. None of Francis' appointees are Africans, who are among the most conservative on family issues.

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